Valparaiso (2-1, 0-0 MVC)
at Golden Eagle Invitational (Cookeville, Tenn.)
Friday, Sept. 3 - vs. UNC Asheville (1-1) - 1 p.m.
at Tennessee Tech (1-1) - 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 4 - vs. South Alabama (3-0) - 10:30 a.m.
This Week in Valpo Volleyball: The Valpo volleyball team continues early-season tournament action this weekend with a road trip to Cookeville, Tenn. to compete at Tennessee Tech’s Golden Eagle Invitational. The Beacons will take on UNC Asheville and South Alabama in addition to host TTU over the two-day event.
Previously: Valpo posted a 2-1 record on opening weekend against a strong tournament field at the Panther Invitational to place second. The Beacons bookended the weekend with thrilling five-set wins over UC Santa Barbara and Milwaukee, falling in between to Illinois.
Looking Ahead: Another tournament is on the docket next weekend, as Valpo heads east to Toledo’s Blue & Gold Tournament Sept. 10-11.
Following the Beacons: All three matches this weekend will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Links for all the live video, as well as live stats for all three matches, are available via ValpoAthletics.com.
Head Coach Carin Avery: In her 20th season as head coach at Valparaiso, Carin Avery has won 425 matches (425-208, .671) at the helm of the program and has led Valpo to three league regular season and tournament titles, as well as three NCAA Tournament appearances. A two-time league Coach of the Year, Avery has coached 55 All-League recipients over her tenure at Valpo. She is Valpo’s all-time leader in both victories and winning percentage, and owns a 480-232 (.674) record overall as a head coach.
Series History: UNC Asheville - First meeting
Tennessee Tech - Valpo leads the series with TTU, 2-1. The first meeting came way back in 1989, and the most recent matchup occurred at WKU in September 2008 - a 3-2 Valpo victory.
South Alabama - Valpo has split a pair of matchups with the Jaguars in the past, including most recently beating South Alabama 3-1 in September 2012 at Saint Louis.
Scouting the Opposition: UNC Asheville - The Bulldogs split two matches on opening weekend, winning over Western Carolina and falling to Davidson. After going 8-8 in the spring season, they were picked to finish fifth in the Big South this fall.
Tennessee Tech - The Golden Eagles went 1-1 last weekend, falling to Auburn before taking down Jackson State. TTU posted a 9-7 record in the spring and was chosen to finish fifth in the OVC this fall.
South Alabama - The Jaguars opened the season by winning their home invitational, sweeping Florida A&M, Charleston Southern and Jacksonville, all in straight sets. South Alabama played its 2020-21 schedule last fall, posting an 8-14 mark, and was picked to finish in fifth place in the East division of the Sun Belt this season.
Valpo Picked Seventh in Preseason Poll: For the fourth time in five seasons as an MVC member, Valpo has been picked to finish in seventh place in the conference standings in preseason polling of the conference’s head coaches. Illinois State topped the poll with 79 points and three first-place votes, narrowly edging out Drake, which tallied 77 points, including three first-place votes. Valpo has outperformed its ranking in the preseason poll in each of its first four seasons in the MVC and is one of two programs (Illinois State) to post top-half finishes in the MVC standings in each of the last four seasons.
Looking Back at the Spring: The spring 2021 campaign saw Valpo post an 11-9 record and finish fifth in the MVC standings with a 10-8 mark in conference action. Rylee Cookerly repeated as MVC Libero of the Year, was named the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was an AVCA All-Region honoree, while Victoria Bulmahn was tabbed the MVC Freshman of the Year. Included among Valpo’s 11 wins were the program’s first victory over Illinois State since joining the MVC and the first wins in program history over traditional power UNI.
Who’s Back and Who’s New: The Beacons return 10 letterwinners, including four starters and the libero, from the spring 2021 campaign - a group which accounted for 75% of the team’s kills, 90% of aces, 82% of digs and 86% of blocks last season. Valpo also returns a pair of players who didn’t see action last season, while welcoming in one transfer and four freshmen.
Digging Deep: Valpo continued its long tradition of strong back row play in the spring 2021 season, finishing the season ranked third nationally and second in the Valley with 20.37 digs/set. Valpo has ranked among the top-30 nationally in digs/set in each of the last 10 seasons, including leading the nation with 20.03 digs/set in 2017 to go along with a fourth-place rank in 2010 and a sixth-place finish in 2015. Since the move to 25-point scoring, only seven teams have averaged more than 20 digs/set over the course of a season, and Valpo is the only program to have done it twice. 2018 saw Valpo lead the nation in a digs category as well, as it posted 2,613 total digs - a mark which not only ranked first nationally for total digs, but also set a program single-season record and a Division I record in the 25-point era.
A Winning Weekend: Valpo came out of the opening weekend of action with a 2-1 record from the Panther Invitational, something which has been commonplace for the program over the years. Over the last 11 traditional seasons (exempting the spring 2021 campaign), Valpo has posted a .500 record or better in its first weekend of competition 10 times.
Fifth Set is Ours: Both of the Beacons’ wins on opening weekend came in matches which went the full five sets, extending to five Valpo’s winning streak in five-set affairs dating back to last year. That streak started immediately after a four-match losing streak in five-set matches ended. This is the first time Valpo has won a pair of five-set matches in the opening weekend of action since taking down both Saint Louis and Xavier in five sets in the first weekend of the 1990 campaign.
Rallying From Down 2-0: The win over UC Santa Barbara was especially notable, in that Valpo dropped the first two sets of the season opener before rallying to eventually earn the 3-2 win. It was the 12th time in the tenure of head coach Carin Avery that Valpo has come all the way back from a 2-0 deficit to earn a 3-2 victory.
Ravotto Loves Season Openers: There’s just something about performing in the season opener for junior outside hitter Bella Ravotto. She set a career best with her match-high 18 kills in the win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday morning and added 12 digs as well. Ravotto has now led Valpo in kills in the season opener in each of her three seasons on campus. In addition, she has five career double-doubles — three of which have come in the three season-opening matches.
McCarthy Paces the Offense: Fifth-year middle Peyton McCarthy led Valpo offensively on opening weekend, hitting .357 with a team-best 2.54 kills/set on her way to earning All-Tournament Team honors. After posting nine kills on .389 hitting in the win over UC Santa Barbara and seven kills on .294 hitting versus Illinois, McCarthy unleashed a team-high 17 kills on .371 hitting in the five-set win over Milwaukee to close the weekend. McCarthy, who earned All-Tournament accolades for the fourth time in her career, is closing in on 1,000 career kills, as she now sits at 892 terminations for her career.
Blocking Right Off the Bat: Senior middle Haley Hart stood out defensively at the net in receiving the first All-Tournament Team award of her career at the Panther Invitational. She opened the season with a team-high five blocks in the come-from-behind win over UC Santa Barbara and again paced the Beacons with four blocks against Illinois. Hart closed the weekend by tying her career best with a match-high eight blocks in the win over Milwaukee. For the weekend, Hart averaged a team-best 1.31 blocks/set.
Cookerly Continues to Dig: A preseason All-MVC selection and two-time MVC Libero of the Year, fifth-year Rylee Cookerly got her fall 2021 season off to another stellar start last weekend. Cookerly averaged 4.92 digs/set on the weekend, highlighted by a 33-dig performance in the win over UC Santa Barbara - her ninth career match of 30+ digs. Cookerly, who finished last season ranked 10th nationally with 5.78 digs/set, moved up three spots on the NCAA’s all-time chart in career digs last weekend and now sits 13th in NCAA history with 2,578 career digs. She heads into this weekend just 28 digs away from cracking the top-10 on the chart, and is just 78 digs from moving into second place in the category in MVC history.
A Pair of Setters: It could be considered a good problem to have - Valpo entered this season with a pair of award-winning setters on its roster in 2018 First Team All-MVC honoree Brittany Anderson and spring 2021 MVC Freshman of the Year Victoria Bulmahn. The first weekend saw Carin Avery rotate the pair in a 6-2, with Anderson notching 57 assists and Bulmahn 50. Anderson now has 3,907 career assists, just 49 shy of third place in Valpo history in the category.
Making Debuts: Two newcomers saw their first action for the Beacons on opening weekend. Indiana State transfer Gretchen Kuckkan saw time on the right side in all three matches and totaled 12 kills and four blocks, while Elise Swistek made appearances off the bench in all three matches as well.
